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Im thinking about "getting supplies" for another army and the Tyranids were always kinda iconic for me. Im thinking about buying the battleforce but Im wondering whether all those troop units are useful in a good army list, that isnt horde-style only? I dont want to repeat the mistake I did with SM Battleforce, where both scouts and assault marines proved to be kinda useless in most lists...

The battleforce includes 16 hormagaunts, 16 termagants, 8 genestealers and 3 warriors.

So, are all those hormagaunts, termagants, genestealers and warriors really useful together? Is it good value for the money? Thanks in advance

The most highly regarded troops choices for 'competitive' tyranid armies are termagants and more importantly the tervigons they unlock. The other troops choices all have a place, so perhaps the best course would be to buy a battleforce and a tervigon to start. I advise checking the cost of a battleforce against the troops it contains - you are only really interested in 2-3 of the units it contains, just buy them seperately.

That was my first 40k purchase, and it has done me pretty well. They all have a place and depending on the playstyle you end up using, you will end up at the very least messing around with all the unit types at one point or another. You also get some ripper swarms in it. And useful or not those little buggers look cool.

Thanks, that sounds good so far! One more question:

Is it possible to convert the hormagaunts into termagants using the battleforce leftover bitz? So far it seems to me the Hormagaunts are the least useful unit in the box...

Don't underestimate the humble hormie, they are great. If you give them toxing sacs they can trouble anyone. A large unit of them on the charge deliver masses of attacks and if those are poisoned they are powerful.

You could convert them depedning upon what weapons you want to give them. You'll get enough fleshborers, devourers and spinefists for one per termie (with spinefists in pairs, one per arm). You could use the spares to convert the hormies, but bear in mind that they look different and the models are posed differently so they could potentially not fit the extra weapons, fall over, etc. I would not both with spinefists really due to their low range. Devourers are good and make termies pretty formidable (3 shots each per turn) but do double their points cost!

I actually think hormies are a far better unit than termies with fleshborers, but the tervigon is a wonderful thing!

Overall I think the nid box is a poor one. It is more expensive than the others and offers a very bog standard range of basic troops. It needs more variety. Look at the Tau box and (although Tau are pretty useless at present) look at what you get in that. It is a saving but are those the troops you need?

Thanks for the insight! I agree the box looks rather boring with all troops choices, but it still saves around 17 £ and if all of those troops are usable, I could go with that

If I'd build the hormagaunts toxic sacs, termagaunts with devourers, and add a hive tyrant with guard, would it be a reasonable start for a small army? Tervigon sounds great but from what I've heard it requires very large amount of termagants, which will take me some time to hoard...